1. Field
One embodiment relates to an illumination technology to illuminate an illumination target surface with use of a spatial light modulation device having a plurality of individually controllable optical elements, an exposure technology using the illumination technology, and a device manufacturing technology using the exposure technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, an exposure apparatus such as a stepper or a scanning stepper used in the lithography process for manufacturing electronic devices (micro devices) such as semiconductor devices is provided with an illumination optical apparatus to illuminate a reticle (mask) under various illumination conditions and in a uniform illuminance distribution. A conventionally proposed illumination optical apparatus is one provided with a spatial light modulator of a variable multi-mirror system with a large number of microscopic mirror elements arranged in an array form and having variable inclination angles, and a fly's eye lens on which reflected beams from the mirror elements are focused, in order to set a light quantity distribution on a pupil plane of an illumination optical system to a distribution with a large light quantity in a circular region, an annular region, regions of multiple poles, or the like in accordance with an illumination condition (e.g., cf. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-353105).
Furthermore, another proposed illumination optical apparatus is one provided with two spatial light modulators illuminated with beams in respective polarization states different from each other, and is configured to control light quantity distributions on the pupil plane of beams from the two spatial light modulators independently of each other, in order to control a plurality of secondary light sources or a distribution of polarization states of secondary light sources of a predetermined shape on the pupil plane as an illumination condition (e.g., cf. U.S. Patent Published Application No. 2009/0109417).